COULD Takesure Chinyama’s glittering football club career be coming to an end? WELLINGTON TONI
This is the question that could also be in his mind after he was offloaded by Platinum Stars of South Africa yesterday after an unglamorous stay, mainly due to a horrific knee injury he suffered while playing in Poland.
His contract at the Rustenburg-based club expires on June 30 and will not be renewed.
Turning 32 on September 30, Chinyama burst into the limelight at Hwange in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) in 2003 before he dazzled his way to the bright lights of Harare when he joined 2008 champions Monomotapa in 2005.
In 2006, he went for trials at Legia Warsaw in Poland, but they decided against signing him and he opted for another side in the Ekstraklasa Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski.
But then Legia saw what they had missed and snapped him up in 2007 where he teamed up with fellow Zimbabwean Dickson Choto.
The pair was to be joined later by former AmaZulu hardman Hebert Dick.
Chinyama became the first non-European joint top scorer in the Polish First Division with 19 goals in May 2009 that season and continued with his fine form over the years until a horrific knee injury curtailed him.
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He was released by Legia Warszawa in June 2011 and returned home where he had a six-month spell with Dynamos before moving to South African giants Orlando Pirates where he made 15 league appearances and scored three times.
Chinyama opened his account for Pirates with a spectacular strike against Ajax Cape Town, and also scored four goals in a single match against Djabal in the Caf Champions League before being released to Platinum Stars, where he found no joy.
On Tuesday, Platinum broke the news that Chinyama, defender Benson Mhlongo and Henrico Botes were on the list of players leaving Dikwena next month, leaving the former Zimbabwe international with the huge task of seeking his last pay cheque considering his age.
Chinyama, though, can still find suitors in the form of the “revolving door” at Chippa United where hiring and firing is the order of the day or can simply choose to return home for one last season before hanging up his boots.
He is not the only one who has found the going tough in South Africa with the likes of Oscar Machapa (Moroka Swallows, Tafadzwa Rusike (Ajax Cape Town), Simba Sithole (twice at Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United) and Rodreck Mutuma having returned home — all of them to Dynamos.
Mutuma might feature for Dynamos in the second half of the season as his clearance papers from his previous club Bloemfontein Celtic arrived after the March 26 Zifa transfer deadline.
He was terminated on April 9 and his International Transfer Certificate arrived on April 30.
Dynamos had also entered two different dates of his termination by Celtic on the Fifa Transfer Matching System.
His case is being handled by the PSL emergency committee.
Lionel Mtizwa, formerly with Sundowns and later loaned to Pretoria University, has decided against coming home and has been searching for a club in South Africa since the beginning of the year.
